Every cooking oil in your kitchen, ranked by omega ratio

A short post. No long preamble.

Below: every common Malaysian cooking oil, ranked by their omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Lower number = closer to the ratio your body wants. Higher number = the kitchen is helping push your body toward imbalance.

The leaderboard

Note: ratios are approximate. They vary by brand, refining method, and source.

One note on flaxseed oil

Flaxseed looks like the winner on the table — and it's a good ingredient — but the omega-3 in flax (and in chia, walnuts) is plant ALA, not the active EPA/DHA your cells actually use. The body converts only ~5–10% of plant ALA into EPA, much less into DHA. So flax is a useful supporting habit, not a substitute for marine omega-3 from oily fish or a quality marine omega-3 supplement.

What this means in practice

I don't think you should swap every bottle in your kitchen tomorrow. That's not realistic. Here's a more useful frame:

• For cold use (salads, drizzles): extra virgin olive oil. Period.
• For medium-heat cooking: olive or avocado oil.
• For high heat: if you must, coconut or refined palm. Honestly, deep frying less often is the bigger win than swapping the oil.
• The oils to be most cautious about: sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, corn. These are the omega-6 multipliers. Often hidden in salad dressings, fried snacks, and "healthy" packaged foods.

One trap to know about

Restaurants and food courts almost universally cook with the cheapest available oil — which means soy, palm, or "vegetable oil" blends. Your home kitchen is one variable; the food you eat outside the home is the other 70%.

That's why this isn't really a "buy a better oil" problem. It's a "where am I eating, and what's it cooked in?" problem.

For one week: write down every meal where the oil source was visible to you. Count how often it was omega-6 heavy vs olive/avocado/coconut. Most people are shocked. Try it.